A teenager who was later jailed for two decades for plotting terrorist attacks on Australian soil appeared on a TV panel show wearing an Islamic State logo – but wasn’t kicked out of the audience.
ABC host Stan Grant’s booting of a Vladimir Putin sympathiser from the Q&A studio audience on Thursday evening has sparked comparisons with previous controversial moments.
Grant told Sasha Gillies-Lekakis to leave some 20 minutes after he told the program that he was ‘outraged’ the media is depicting Russia as ‘the bad guy’ for invading Ukraine.
‘There are a lot of Russians here and around the world who support what Putin is doing in Ukraine, myself included,’ the University of Melbourne student said.
Back in 2014, as jihadist groups rampaged across Syria and Iraq beheading Westerners, 19-year-old Sulayman Khalid appeared on an SBS Insight program named Joining The Fight wearing an Islamic State logo on his jacket.
He said: ‘ISIS – they do not want to bring anything but justice. Justice, peace and humanitarian aid to the people.’
Khalid said ISIS’ do not want to bring anything but justice’ during the 2014 program, and showed off the logos of terror organisations he had emblazoned on his shirt
Pictured: Islamic State-inspired terrorist teenager Sulayman Khalid. He appeared on SBS Insight three years before being jailed for 22 years for plotting terror attacks
Three years later, Khalid was jailed for 22 years, a term later reduced by two and a half years, after he pleaded guilty to conspiring to do acts in preparation for a terrorist act to advance ‘violent jihad’.
His attack plot involved killing police officers and targeting government buildings in Sydney.
During the SBS program, Khalid showed other guests the emblems of different terrorist organisations on his clothing, before declaring ‘they’re all the same flags’.
‘People might say “you’re a supporter of Jabhat al-Nusra [a former jihadist group]”, and with this flag here people might say “you’re a supporter of Dolatful Islam and ISIS”.
‘But these flags are all one… one Muslim nation and that’s it.’
The ABC has also courted controversy with its guest lists for Q&A in the past.
In 2015, guest Zaky Mallah was allowed question panellists about plans to strip jihadis of Australian citizenship – despite Mallah himself having been charged with two terrorism offences twelve years earlier.
Mallah was acquitted in a jury trial and instead pleaded guilty to a charge of threatening a government official, for which he served two years in prison.
Nearly seven years before Q+A host Stan Grant kicked a guest out who claimed Ukrainians were ‘Nazi’ killers , the ABC allowed ex-terror suspect Zaky Mallah (pictured) to question the panel about plans to strip jihadis of Australian citizenship
During a heated exchange, the Sydneysider accused the Liberal government of giving Australian Muslims a ‘justification’ to go overseas and join the terror organisation.
Panel member and then-Liberal MP Steven Ciobo hit back, saying he knew Mallah’s case and would be glad to see him expelled from the country.
‘Rubbish,’ Mallah replied. ‘As an Australian I would be happy to see you out of the country.’
However he was not removed from the audience – with host Tony Jones only going as far as saying the comments were ‘out of order’.
The ABC later said it had made an ‘error in judgement’ in allowing Mallah to ask a question as it could not properly vet what he would say in a debate-style environment.
At the time, the Muslim activist told Daily Mail Australia he supported al-Qaeda linked Jabhat al Nusra, ‘but only in Syria because it is there they are trying to deradicalise Islamic State’.
Sasha Gillies-Lekakis (pictured) was asked to leave the Q&A studio after he said he supported what Putin was doing in Ukraine and claimed there were other like-minded Australians
Mallah was not removed from the audience – with host Tony Jones only going as far as saying the comments were ‘out of order’
The comparison between the two on-air controversies comes as Mr Gillies-Lekakis on Friday morning hit back at Q+A and his critics – while also denying he supports the war.
The 23-year-old, who spent a semester living and studying in communist Cuba, said he ‘made no direct statement sanctioning violence or conflict’.
‘I was hoping to make the point that I support Putin’s grievances regarding the breaking of the Minsk Peace Agreement by the Ukraine, and the ensuing loss of life.’
‘I find Mr Grant’s statements following my departure, and the fact that I was asked to leave the program, disappointing and unprofessional.’
Despite his on-air comments, Mr Gillies-Lekakis now claims he is ‘unequivocally against war and the loss of any lives’ and argues his ‘words were misrepresented and incomplete’ because he was cut off from finishing his question.
The Spanish and Latin American Studies student from the University of Melbourne also denied allegations his question was ‘unvetted’ and ‘rogue’.
Sasha Gillies-Lekakis spent a semester abroad living and studying in communist Cuba
On Friday the 23-year-old, who spent a semester living and studying in communist Cuba, hit back at his critics and ABC’s Q&A host Stan Grant, arguing he ‘made no direct statement sanctioning violence or conflict’
He claims to have followed all the appropriate channels, including submitting the question via the Q&A portal and finessing it at the request of production.
‘I am genuinely sorry that things took the turn they did. However, at the same time, an acknowledgement of the ABC’s questionable conduct would also be appreciated.’
Daily Mail Australia can reveal Mr Gillies-Lekakis spent a semester during his degree living and studying in Cuba, a communist nation.
The then-20-year-old travelled to Cuba in 2020, making him the first student from the University of Melbourne to undertake an exchange program in Cuba.
